Proverbs 23:35

35 "They 1struck me," you will say,[a]"but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I 2must have another drink."

Proverbs 23:35 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 23:35

They have stricken me, [shalt thou say, and] I was not sick,
&c.] Or "grieved not" F24; or was not wounded or skin broken F25; see ( Jeremiah 5:3 ) . The drunken man is here represented as saying, that though his companions, with whom he quarrelled and fought in his drunken frolics, beat him very much, yet he was not sensible of the pain and smart; and it had left no sickness nor disorder upon him; he did not find himself much the worse for it; they have beaten me;
as with hammers F26; battered and bruised him terribly, laying very hard and heavy strokes upon him; [and] I felt [it] not;
or "knew it not" F1; did not perceive it, was not sensible of it, when the blows were given, or who gave them; and thus feeling no more, and coming off so well, as he thinks, he is so far from being reclaimed from this vice, that he is more strengthened in it, and desirous of it; when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again:
that is, the wine and his boon companions, though he has been so used. So the Vulgate Latin version, "when shall I awake, and again find wines?" being heavy with sleep through intemperance, and yet thirsty, is desirous of shaking off his sleep, that he may get to drinking again, and "add drunkenness to thirst", ( Deuteronomy 29:19 ) ; so the Septuagint version,

``when will it be morning, that going I may seek with whom I may meet?''

FOOTNOTES:

F24 (ytylx lb) "non dolui", Tigurine version, Michaelis.
F25 Schultens Orig. Heb. l. 1. c. 9. s. 20.
F26 (ynwmlh) "contuderunt me, velut malleis", Michaelis; so Grotius.
F1 (ytedy lb) "non cognovi", Pagninus, Montanus; "non novi", Cocceius.

Proverbs 23:35 In-Context

33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.
34 You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.
35 "They struck me," you will say,"but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink."

Cross References 2

  • 1. Jeremiah 5:3; [ver. 29]
  • 2. Isaiah 56:12

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Hebrew lacks you will say
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.